Outdated apps may rain on Windows Phone 8′s parade

Microsoft has yet to release its software development kit for Windows Phone 8 despite the OS's impending launch, raising concerns that developers won't have time to update their apps.

On October 29, Microsoft will finally tell us everything there is to know about Windows Phone 8, its new mobile operating system. But surely we know everything already, right? After all, we’ve seen the software and all the major manufacturers have announced their hardware too.

Microsoft says it has kept some facts back about WP8 to help maintain anticipation, and revealing those will be part of the October event. Unfortunately, this secrecy has caused Microsoft to delay the release of its Software Development Kit, or SDK, presumably to help avoid thunder-stealing leaks; but the final version is expected to arrive at the end of this month.

However, the wait has angered many Windows Phone developers, as did a decision to allow certain developers limited access to the SDK in return for signing a non-disclosure agreement.

Angry developers without access to the right software could mean problems in the new Windows Phone Store, which will be a worry for anyone wanting to buy one of the new handsets. Windows Phone already lags behind Android and iPhone when it comes to quality apps. Should we be concerned by this delay?

Will app availability be a problem?

A delayed SDK means developers won’t be able to fine-tune, test, or add in additional features to get their apps ready for Windows Phone 8. They also can’t create new apps that take advantage of the new platform. The good news is Microsoft has said Windows Phone 7 apps will be compatible with Windows Phone 8, so every app that’s already in the store will still be available — they just won’t be optimized.

More good news is that those developers with early access are likely to be the big studios, as Microsoft will want to ensure high profile apps have been enhanced to show off the OS’s abilities. Don’t forget, Windows Phone 8 hardware has faster processors and higher resolution screens, so there’s plenty of scope to improve existing apps.

We asked Microsoft representatives if the lack of an SDK would be a problem. Predictably, we were assured that it’s all part of the plan:

“We’ve been quietly previewing the SDK with hundreds of top developers and on September 5 announced a broader SDK Preview Program for registered developers with apps in Marketplace. As usual we aren’t going to release the SDK to the general public until the full OS is revealed, but we feel this Preview Program delivers on the commitment we made in June and allows developers to test and update their apps for Windows Phone 8.”

Regardless of why Microsoft is being secretive, this delay brings us on to the bad news: older apps may not look all that great until they’ve been updated. It looks like some developers have been given the information needed to update, but not all of them. Remember the switch from a 320 x 480 pixel screen on an iPhone 3G/3GS to the iPhone 4’s Retina Display? While it won’t be quite that pronounced, this situation is very similar. The bottom line here is that yes, there will be apps, but most will not be enhanced for Windows Phone 8 in time for release.

There is one more thing to remember, and that’s the October 29 date isn’t the date Windows Phone 8 hardware goes on sale. Due to Microsoft holding back, manufacturers have stayed quiet on when phones will hit stores, with sometime in November being the only word.

Provided the SDK comes out on October 29, then developers will still have a few weeks to play with their apps before you get your hands on a WP8 phone. Let’s hope they work fast.

Microsoft has upgraded it developer portal, promising improvements in the app certification process and overall site performance. Another 13 countries have been added to this list too, bringing the total to 191, and more developers able to sing up means more apps for us.

Is all this normal?

Apple releases different versions of its iOS SDK between the date of its announcement and the date of final release. Not all the versions have every new feature, but they at least allow developers to start work on new apps, or update existing ones. For example, according to this chart, the first iOS 5 beta appeared on June 6 2011, and four subsequent beta versions were released before the final October street date. iOS 6 was similarly released a few months prior to the iPhone 5 going on sale.

Historically, Google has released its SDK a short while after it announces the new version of Android, with 4.1 Jelly Bean’s SDK coming out in July this year following Jelly Bean’s announcement at Google I/O.

The real star at the moment, surprisingly, is RIM (Research in Motion). Despite BlackBerry 10 not appearing until next year (current guestimates hint at March 2013), Beta versions of its SDK are already available to developers, and this week it began accepting app submissions too. It’s even offering an incentive to early bird devs, promising selected apps a prominent position in BlackBerry App World. It looks like it really is lovin’ its developers.

Microsoft’s approach is unorthodox, and does exactly the opposite of RIM’s, as it alienates developers and could potentially annoy buyers when the app selection is sparse. There’s still time to fix this, but Microsoft needs to start soon.

Will it all be OK come release day?

Maybe. Microsoft has dug itself a hole with the handling of Windows Phone 7. No one running a WP7 device will be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8, making the old OS and hardware completely obsolete. Developers want to turn their attention to the new version, but are being hampered by Microsoft’s desire to keep things “secret.” RIM is often ridiculed, but it knows how important it is to keep developers working on its platform.

The first thing any new Windows Phone 8 owner will do is check out the available apps in Microsoft’s Windows Phone app store. If the selection is poor, or the version available is for outdated hardware, that negative experience will spread — fast. Worse, experienced smartphone buyers are already used to Google Play and/or the iTunes App Store, which are full of good apps.

Microsoft needs Windows Phone 8 to have a more successful launch that Windows Phone 7, and is playing with fire by denying developers access to the WP8 SDK right now. Or, for all we know, the software has problems and isn’t finished, requiring last minute adjustments. If it’s the former, the reasoning is bizarre but not unforgivable provided the secrets are truly exciting; but if it’s the latter, then Microsoft has got bigger problems to worry about than a software developer kit.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/windows-phone-8-hampered-by-outdated-apps/

Read More

Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie: 10 things we want to see

Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie has started baking

Google's showing no signs of slowing its pace of Android development, with Android 4.0 appearing on the Galaxy Nexus late in 2011, followed in July of 2012 by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release that arrived powering the super Nexus 7.

But, forward-looking, update-obsessed people that we are, we can't help but imagine how Google's going to maintain the pace of innovation in its next version of its mobile OS, which, if it follows the patterns of previous years, ought to arrive on a new Nexus-brand mobile at the end of 2012.

All we know thus far is that Google's working away on the K release of Android, which it's developing under the dessert-related codename of Key Lime Pie.

UPDATE: Rumours of a new Nexus handset are tricking in now, as we reported on 1 October 2012. There's been speculation that this phone will be sporting Key Lime Pie, but sources who spoke to Talk Android claim it'll be running Android Jelly Bean.

So what should those Google engineers be putting into Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie? Hopefully some of these things.

1. Performance Profiles

It's bit of a fuss managing your mobile before bed time. Switching off the sound, turning off data, activating airplane mode and so on, so what Android 5.0 really needs is a simple way of managing performance, and therefore power use, automatically.

Something like a Gaming mode for max power delivery, an Overnight low-power state for slumbering on minimal power and maybe a Reading mode for no bothersome data connections and a super-low backlight.

Some hardware makers put their own little automated tools in, such as the excellent Smart Actions found within Motorola's RAZR interface, but it'd be great to see Google give us a simple way to manage states.

Another little power strip style widget for phone performance profiles would be an easy way to do it.

Set telephone to BEDTIME SLEEPY MODE

2. Better multiple device support

Google already does quite a good job of supporting serious Android nerds who own several phones and tablets, but there are some holes in its coverage that are rather frustrating.

Take the Videos app which manages your film downloads through the Play Store. Start watching a film on one Android device and you're limited to resuming your film session on that same unit, making it impossible to switch from phone to tablet mid-film.

You can switch between phone and web site players to resume watching, but surely Google ought to understand its fans often have a couple of phones and tabs on the go and fix this for Android Key Lime Pie?

3. Enhanced social network support

Android doesn't really do much for social network users out of the box, with most of the fancy social widgets and features coming from the hardware makers through their own custom skins.

Sony integrates Facebook brilliantly in its phones, and even LG makes a great social network aggregator widget that incorporates Facebook and Twitter - so why are there no cool aggregator apps as part of the standard Android setup?

Yes, Google does a great job of pushing Google+, but, no offence, there are many other more widely used networks that ought to be a little better "baked in" to Android.

4. Line-drawing keyboard options

Another area where the manufacturers have taken a big leap ahead of Google is in integrating clever alternate text entry options in their keyboards. HTC and Sony both offer their own takes on the Swype style of line-drawing text input, which is a nice option to have for getting your words onto a telephone. Get it into Android 5.0 and give us the choice.

P-U-T T-H-I-S I-N A-N-D-R-O-I-D 5-.-0

5. A video chat app

How odd is it that Google's put a front-facing camera on the Nexus 7 and most hardware manufacturers do the same on their phones and tablets, yet most ship without any form of common video chat app?

You have to download Skype and hope it works, or find some other downloadable app solution. Why isn't there a Google Live See My Face Chat app of some sort as part of Android? Is it because we're too ugly? Is that what you're saying, Google?

6. Multi-select in the contacts

The Android contacts section is pretty useful, but it could be managed a little better. What if you have the idea of emailing or texting a handful of your friends? The way that's currently done is by emailing one, then adding the rest individually. Some sort of checkbox system that let users scroll through names and create a mailing list on the fly through the contacts listing in Android Key Lime Pie would make this much easier.

Make this a destination, rather than a never-used list

7. Cross-device SMS sync

If you're a constant SIM swapper with more than one phone on the go, chances are you've lost track of your text messages at some point. Google stores these on the phone rather than the SIM card, so it'd be nice if our texts could be either backed up to the SIM, the SD card, or beamed up to the magical invisible cloud of data, for easy and consistent access across multiple devices.

8. A "Never Update" option

This would annoy developers so is unlikely to happen, but it'd be nice if we could refuse app updates permanently in Android 5.0, just in case we'd rather stick with a current version of a tool than be forced to upgrade.

Sure, you can set apps to manual update and then just ignore the update prompt forever, but it'd be nice to know we can keep a favoured version of an app without accidentally updating it. Some of us are still using the beta Times app, for example, which has given free access for a year.

Let us keep older versions. Many people fear change

9. App preview/freebie codes

Something Apple's been doing for ages and ages is using a promo code system to distribute free or review versions of apps. It even makes doing little competitions to drum up publicity for apps much easier, so why's there no similar scheme for Android?

It might encourage developers to stop going down the ad-covered/freemium route if they could charge for an app but still give it away to friends and fans through a promo code system.

10. Final whinges and requests...

It's be nice to be able to sort the Settings screen by alphabetical order, too, or by most commonly used or personal preference, as Android's so packed with a huge list of options these days it's a big old list to scroll through and pick out what you need.

Plus could we have a percentage count for the battery in the Notifications bar for Android 5.0? Just so we know a bit more info than the vague emptying battery icon.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/android-5-0-key-lime-pie-10-things-we-want-to-see-1091500

Read More

Hands on: BlackBerry 10 review

BlackBerry 10 is still heavily under development and still quite some way from being a finished product, but we've had some hands on time with an early release to get a feel for some of the new features.

Update: We've checked out an almost-final version of the user interface, which is pretty close to perfection, according to RIM: "we think we've nailed the user experience going forward," Vivek Bhardwaj told TechRadar - but we'll let you be the judge by checking out our findings below.

Delayed until early 2013, the first BB10 devices should land in January – although we're yet to see final devices running the new OS.

In fact it was the BlackBerry Dev Alpha device which has been handed out in its thousands to BlackBerry developers worldwide, so they can start working away on new apps ready for the launch of BB 10. We checked out an recent version of the device in London, and here's what we thought:

BB10 sees the implementation of a whole new user interface, with RIM doing away with the familiar BlackBerry system we're all used to, in favour of something which resembles the likes of Android and iOS, although with its own unique features.

With BlackBerry 10, RIM has merged homescreens, widgets, app lists and a unified inbox into one slick interface, offering up an easy-to-navigate user experience.

The main homescreen comprises of four widgets, technically mini-applications, which expand to fill the screen when tapped.

Scrolling down and you'll notice that this main display actually holds eight mini apps in total – displayed in order of use, allowing you to jump quickly between your recent applications.

Open up an application which isn't in top spot, or a completely new one from the app list, and when you exit it you'll notice that it now occupies the first, top left spot on the homescreen.

Swiping from left to right will bring you to the app home screen, with 16 apps on the screen at any one time, and you can access more by sliding up and down – the whole thing very similar to Windows Phone's Start Menu UI.

At the bottom of both the homescreen and app list you'll notice a shortcut bar, with quick links to the phone, search and camera applications – allowing you to quickly jump to these regularly used features.

Unfortunately these features had not been implemented on the version of BB10 we were using, so we'll have to wait and see how well they work.

Lock screen

The lock screen shows notifications for alarms and unread messages on the left plus your upcoming meetings as well as the date and time, with a button to launch the camera straight from the lock screen to grab a quick snap.

You unlock the phone by sliding your thumb up the screen. You can slide from anywhere on screen rather than needing to start at the bottom and the screen starts to draw in around where you slide so if you just want a quick peek at the information in one area of the screen, you can just drag to show it and then let go.

Return to the home screen and then sweep in the opposite direction and you'll be greeted by the unified inbox, which pulls in all your messaging and social network notifications into one easy to access location.

And when we say all, we mean all, as the unified inbox can deal with multiple email accounts, text messages, BBM, call history, third party messaging apps such as Whats App and a whole host of social networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Of course, with so many accounts feeding into the handset, the more popular among us will be quickly inundated with notifications from various different channels, however there's an easy way to check where your new messages are coming from, without clogging up the notification bar at the top of the screen.

RIM has developed the "peek" function, which sees the user drag slightly from right to left, which reveals a slender column on the right side of the display, with new message icons and counters for your respective accounts.

The reason for this is so you can quickly see which account has received a new message and jump directly to it if required, whether you're on the homescreen or within another application.

Update: Wherever you are, you can drag up on the screen to see notifications down the left of the screen. Pull up and slide across and you see the details of the new messages (from the unified inbox, so you get email, texts, BBM and social network updates or other alerts all together).

The further you slide your finger across, the more the top layer slides out of the way and the more of the layer underneath you see, so you can peek at new mail to see if it's important enough to read straight away and then go back to what you're doing, without ever actually switching out of the current application.

If you pull up and then across, you can even swap what you're peeking at underneath, swapping to a different email account or even the calendar in the message centre (by picking the icon or pulling far enough across to see the account name first).

Or you can jump straight into the clients for your cloud storage, like Box, Dropbox and SkyDrive. Start in the file manager and pull the screen back to see storage on your device or pick Dropbox instead. You can open, edit and manage files in cloud services as if they were on the phone.

The same level of integration applies to the new Remember note-taking app, which pulls in notebooks from EverNote or OneNote and tasks from Outlook accounts. Swipe sideways in the HTML5 browser and you see the list of favourites.

It sounds a little complicated, but once you have the hang of it, you can navigate around your information going straight to what you want without going back to the home screen and into different applications each time.

Having the 'peek' idea work the same way in so many applications helps you get used to it as well (though we don't yet know how well third-party applications will be able to do the same thing).

When you do get into a message or an appointment, you can see more information about the people involved in a way that will be familiar to BlackBerry PlayBook 2 users; you can see who you know in common, what messages you've exchanged or recent social network updates.

It's a new look for the 'flow' between different apps and information sources that BlackBerry has always been good at, but with a fresh modern look on a much larger screens, with a similar gesture showing you a pane of the apps that are currently running. And

If you drag down on the screen you see Personal and Work buttons that let you switch between the two BlackBerry Balance modes.

In Personal, you can install any apps you want, send any email, save any file and so on, working in a partition that's encrypted for privacy but not locked down in any way. if you use your BlackBerry for work though, you'll also have a Work partition that's also encrypted but completely separate and can be locked down if that's what the company wants.

Drag down on the screen, pick Work mode and all your personal apps disappear – so you can't accidentally copy a work file into your personal cloud storage account.

Then there's Cascades, a new navigation system cooked up by RIM especially for BB10, allowing for quick multitasking from within applications.

The example we've seen is in the messaging app - open an email it will display full screen, but drag your finger from left to right and the message will slide with you, revealing the inbox below.

This means if you get a new message in the middle of reading an email, you can check who it's from without having to close the application – similar to the notification bar on Android and also now iOS.

If you were to open an attachment from the email, a PDF document in the case of our demo, pulling to the side to view the cascade will show the app's layers stacked up – a more visual paper trail, if you will.

It's certainly an intuitive feature that we found to work smoothly on the development handset – but it will be interesting to see how this feature is embedded into other applications and if it will have the same pleasing results.

App world

There's a different version of BlackBerry AppWorld where your company can offer specific work apps – like an app that uses the NFC chip in your BlackBerry to unlock the door to the office

RIM is hoping this will keep companies happy with security but also keep users happy, because the security team at work can wipe all the company information off your device if they want but that won't delete your photos.

They can't even see what files you have on your phone when they're managing it, because your personal partition is encrypted.

As more of us take our own phones to work, this is much more sophisticated way of protecting both the company and the user's personal files that other smartphones – but again, it's a little on the complicated side and relies on your company having the appropriate BlackBerry management software.

Finally, the last feature which was available for us to play with on this early version of BB 10 was RIM's new full-touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.

BlackBerry handsets are famous for their physical boards and RIM is keen to bring this typing experience to its BB10 touchscreen smartphones with its own offering.

Visually the keyboard looks similar to the stock Android offering, but each row of keys is separated with a silver line – which is supposed to reflect the metal strips between buttons on the Bold range, such as the Bold 9790 and Bold 9900.

Next word prediction, auto-correct and spell check are all common features on smartphones today and RIM has spent some time developing its own system to offer an efficient typing experience.

It sees next-word suggestions appear above the character the word begins with, and if it's the word you want to use, you just need to swipe up over the word and it will be added to your sentence.

As with many offerings these days, the keyboard will learn your style of writing, meaning it will be able to suggest better words the more you use your phone.

We found the keyboard to be fairly accurate and relatively well spaced, but for those of you used to the physical buttons of a traditional BlackBerry it will take some getting used to.

Although the operating system is still very much in its early stages of development, we must say that we were impressed with how smooth and slick the interface felt under out fingers – seamlessly zipping around without fuss.

BlackBerry assured us that is smooth experience would still be present in the final product, thanks to the clever integration of the HTML 5 system, which optimises the performance of the software. We certainly hope they're right.

Find out more information on BlackBerry 10, including its release date, upcoming devices and the camera function with our BB10: what you need to know article.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/blackberry-10-1090522/review

Read More

Previewing Mozilla Firefox OS, an HTML5-based interface

The upcoming Mozilla Firefox OS is slated for a Q1 of 2013 release, but how is the development coming along? Here's our hands-on preview.

In attendance at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular in New York City last night was Mozilla Firefox, and we got some hands-on time with the operating system the open-source web browser is currently developing. The Firefox OS (working name, as far as we know) is still in a heavy beta mode, and is built entirely on HTML5. The rep we spoke to demoed the OS using an unbranded ZTE phone, noting that Firefox has stripped the Android out of the phone and created its own operating system from the ground up.

What what we can see, the OS is fully web-based in that every app and functionality runs off the web browser. Making phone calls is equivalent to calling on Skype, taking pictures is akin to snapping flicks with Apple’s Photo Booth, searching straight from the homepage is like having a shortcut to the Firefox search tool bar. There’s also a cartoony game built into the phone that uses a tap to perform actions interface, and it’s clear that the OS still has a bit of a way to go before its scheduled release date early next year.

Mozilla even tried to build a glasses-less 3D rendering that you can see, touch, and move… but this feature was still a bit buggy and did not respond too well to touchscreen interface just yet. We’ll cut it some slack considering it has several months to go, but web developers should definitely gear up for some fun programming time once the open source OS becomes available for your modding pleasures.

The Firefox OS is all part of a collaboration between ZTE and Mozilla to roll out its own system that doesn’t rely on Windows or Android. The finished OS is slated to arrive overseas first, with mobile network operators Deutsche Telekom, Sprint, Smart, Telecom Italia, Telenor, and Etisalat backing the experimental platform, reports Reuters. We hope to catch up with the development team in a few months and see how their work comes along, and whether it’s got something entirely different to offer that truly distinguishes it from the rest.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/previewing-mozilla-firefox-os-an-html5-based-interface/

Read More

Huawei to ship the Ascend D Quad on September 12 in China

The Huawei Ascend D Quad was one of the superstars at this year's MWC in Barcelona, but it got off to a rocky start as the development of the company's own K3V2 chipset with quad-core CPU didn't go according to plan. As a result, the Huawei Ascend D Quad was delayed time and again, but it appears that the waiting is about to end.

Huawei has finally managed to solve the CPU production issues and has announced the Ascend D Quad will be hitting the shelves on September 12. In its home country, the flagship will be selling for RMB 2,699 ($425). However, with competition such as the quad-core monster Xiaomi 2, selling for RMB 1,999 ($315), Huawei will have a hard time convincing Chinese buyers to go for the Ascend D Quad.

Still, we haven't yet thoroughly tested what Huawei's quad-core K3V2 1.5 GHz CPU is capable of, so we might be wrong there. Unfortunately, the company still hasn't announced a date for the international release of its Android flagship device. Here's hoping it's not too far away now.


Source : gsmarena[dot]com

Read More